Labour leader Ed Miliband has pledged that Labour will scrap the bedroom tax if it wins the 2015 general election. This is a victory for the determined resistance of tenants and the trade unionists who have supported them.

Workers in South Gloucestershire council Unison are set to strike against the removal of enhanced pay for Saturday working. A massive 92 percent backed strikes in a recent ballot. Union membership has risen dramatically during the campaign for industrial action.

Lecturers at the University of Liverpool have scored a victory over management. Bosses had threatened to dismiss 2,803 workers if they refused to sign new contracts. These contracts would allow bosses to call in workers as needed—without giving them any time off in lieu in return.

Cleaners working for ISS on London Underground are refusing to have their fingerprints scanned to clock into work. The RMT union members began the action on Thursday of last week. They also plan to refuse to work overtime on Friday of this week.

Newly revealed footage from after the Marikana mine massacre of 2012 shows Brigadier Adriaan Calitz, praising police for a perfectly executed plan. It was Calitz who had ordered the police to open fire on striking miners.

The CDU party of German chancellor Angela Merkel increased its vote at last Sunday’s German election. But her coalition partner, the neoliberal FDP, lost all its MPs for the first time since 1948. Merkel’s popularity came from the relative stability of the growing economy.

A witness into the shooting of Mark Duggan is to tell the inquest into his death that she saw police “plant” a gun near the site of the shooting. Police shot and killed Mark in August 2011. The witness is known as Miss J. She claims that she saw an officer take a gun from a shoebox in a minicab and put it on the grass metres away from where Mark’s body was lying.

Firefighters across England and Wales were set to strike on Wednesday of this week to defend their pensions. Fire Brigades Union (FBU) members will walk out from 12 noon to 4pm. Many are relieved that the union has finally called action—but say more needs to follow if they are to win.

Several fascists were arrested today, including Golden Dawn MPs, following historic strikes against the Nazis and a growing anti-fascist movement. Read the Socialist Workers Party in Greece (SEK) statement.

Comment

The party conference season often means political themes come in waves. The political consensus previously foresaw a bleak election, dominated by the need for £40 billion of post-election cuts or tax rises to correct Britain’s deficit.

When bosses at the Hovis bread factory in Wigan planned to replace long standing staff with workers on zero hours contracts they expected meek agreement. Instead, workers launched a militant strike that has brought management to its knees. Sarah Ensor spoke to strikers